By JOSEPH KELLARD
"A school without a history and past," Januszewski replied, "has no future."
Perhaps unknowingly, Januszewski was laying the foundation for the Circle of Pride, a recently created committee and section of the hall that will honor athletes and coaches who have achieved outstanding success in their athletic careers at OHS and beyond.
"Jan," as Januszewski was affectionately called, recounted this and other similar stories about his career at OHS as the first inductee into the school's Circle of Pride banquet hosted by the Knights of Columbus last Thursday evening.
Today, after years of neglect of the school's Hall of Fame, Sean Keenan, a physical education teacher at OHS, is working on updating, upgrading and expanding the hall, which is among the more extensive of its kind in Nassau County. Keenan and Andy Morris, varsity baseball manager, established the Circle of Pride, and proceeds from its banquet will go toward improving the hall that Januszewski started with his own money and hard work.
Januszewski was one of 11 former OHS coaches and athlete honored last Thursday. Jay Fiedler, Dennis Leonard, Artie Wright, Patti Hanlon, Charles Mosback, Jill Januzewski, Ruth Lewis, Ernie Vanderweghe, Steve Friedman, and Art Hayman were his fellow inductees.
To be considered for the Circle of Pride, students must have earned All-County honors or higher and graduated from OHS four years prior to being nominated. Coaches must have significant accomplishments acknowledged by county, state or national organizations and must have been retired from coaching for at least five years. While candidates can be nominated by anyone, they must be deemed worthy of induction and receive two-thirds of the vote by an 11-person committee comprising former and current coaches, community members and an administrator.
"The Oceanside community had outstanding families," Januszewski told the crowd of 300 people, and proceeded to name them and list their accomplishments both and off the playing field.
He reminisced about his years as a coach of various sports at OHS, including soccer, baseball, tennis and basketball. He was named basketball coach of the year in 1959 and '61 and led the Sailors to two county championships.
Jay Fiedler, who earned All County honors in both basketball and football at OHS, has been the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins the past three years. He was introduced by one of his OHS coaches, Frank Luisi, who helped revive Fiedler's career when he was out of professional football by sending a videotape of his highlights to every team in the NFL.
"It's really tremendous," Fiedler told the Herald about his induction into the Circle. "I had so many people at Oceanside High School that shaped my life, and helped me along the way to get me to the point where I'm at now. So to come back and be honored by the high school and the people of the community is a very touching experience."
Fiedler added that Luisi "certainly tops the list" of people who influenced him at OHS. "He's been with me from the start, from my sophomore year in high school, and he stayed with me all throughout," Fiedler said. "He's been a big influence and a big supporter."
An Island Park native, Dennis Leonard was a pitcher at OHS. In 1972 he was drafted out of Iona College by the Kansas City Royals, the team with which he became a three-time 20-game winner and was its pitcher of the year in 1975, '77 and '79.
During those years, Leonard was involved in the Royals' classic battles with the New York Yankees, the most memorable being their championship games in the late '70s. "It's special to come back after all these years and get a standing ovation in New York," Leonard joked after the crowd applauded his introduction.
Kidding about how he was known for cutting classes, Leonard said that he "lived for baseball" while attending OHS. "I make Missouri my home, but you always have to remember your roots, and Oceanside was part of my past," he said.
Ernie Vanderweghe, who traveled from his home 10 miles from Oceanside, Calif., was a four-time All-American basketball star at OHS who became a professional in the sport.
Incredibly, for four out of Vanderweghe's six seasons with the New York Knicks, ending in 1956, he attended medical school at Colgate University, where he was an All-American in 1949. "Those were the hardest four years of my life," he said.
Vanderweghe also reflected on his roots in Oceanside, which stretched back several generations. His grandfather, Rufus Henry Smith, officially changed the town's original name, Christian Hook, to Oceanside.
"I can't be thankful enough that I had a very supportive family, friends and coaches," Vanderweghe told the audience. "I'm very thankful to those who have supported me throughout my life."
Following Vanderweghe was Patti Hanlon-Smith, the Nassau County gymnastics all-around champion in 1972, who four years later earned All-American honors at Southern Illinois University. Today she lives in Patchogue with her husband of 15 years, Dennis Smith, and 13-year-old son Danny, and is in her 22nd year of teaching physical education and coaching in Rocky Point school district.
"I have carried on many of the values I learned through sport -- such as a good work ethic, commitment, self-motivation and determination -- into my present life, both as a teacher, coach, wife and mother," she said.
Education was important to her parents, and she and her five siblings all have college degrees. Without her parents' love and support, which in part included her father working three jobs, her gymnastics career "would never have be possible," Hanlon-Smith said.
Starting in 1953, Artie Wright won 315 games, including 19 league, 11 South Shore, nine Nassau, and four Long Island championships as the boys' soccer coach at OHS. In his 27 years in this position, he won six consecutive county titles.
Jill Januszewski-Krol was the first female athlete in Oceanside to be named to the All-County team in three sports, basketball, softball and volleyball, in 1982 and '83.
Steve Friedman was an All-American wrestler at OHS who in 1961 became the AAU national champion and won the gold medal at the Maccabiah games.
An OHS basketball player, Art Heyman became a three-time All-American forward at Duke University and the New York Knicks' top draft pick in 1963.
A teacher at OHS from 1925 to 1955, Ruth Lewis coached every girls' sport during the 1950s. Charles Mosback, to whom the OHS Hall of Fame is dedicated, was the school's first football coach, and brought the school a county championship in 1938. He was principal of OHS from 1946 to 1962.
The banquet honoring these men and women was hosted by Athletes Helping Athletes, a student club created in conjunction with Circle of Pride to promote Oceanside athletics and to assist current athletes with information about recruitment into college.
Each year, the Circle of Pride will host an induction banquet in order to continue and expand these program, renovate the hall, and, ultimately, to help fund the district's athletic department.
"It was an amazing night in terms of what we were striving to get," Keenan said of the first banquet. "I've gotten an overwhelming response from the kids, community members and teachers. I think we've achieved our objective."
